Baltimore Bucko Thursday at Belmont:

Squeezadios’ joy – because you know, Thoroughbreds “love to compete” – took a turn at Gulfstream yesterday: “Squeezadios dueled early, suffered a catastrophic injury near the nine-sixteenths marker and was euthanized.” The track, by the way, was rated “sloppy” by Equibase. And that it was. Here’s the replay, with the ugliness, which included another horse “stumbling over [his] fallen rival,” whitewashed by Gulfstream.

A reader, however, sent me this clip:

Squeezadios was five years old.

Little Leo in the 8th at Charles Town last night: “Little Leo settled back saving ground the first turn, bid leaving the seven-sixteenths pole and steadily progressed at the rail on the far turn, threatened and took a slim brief lead mid-stretch, but suffered a fatal injury in the final strides and had to be euthanized on the track.” Dead. The good news for his people (the Dennisons, Mark Shanley), however, is Leo finished 2nd, “winning” $1,734 in the process. Nice payday on the way out, huh? Leo was seven, and had been pounded on U.S. tracks since May 2017 – 45 turns under the whip in all.

My work indicates that almost six horses are killed racing or training across America every day. Yesterday, we have already (before FOIA requests) identified three: Holdfast (Golden Gate), Baltimore Bucko (Belmont), Little Leo. For $2 bets. Awake, America.

The New York Racing Association, basking in the glory of its successful – measured by profits, not dead horses (14) – summer at Saratoga, opened its Belmont Fall Meet today with (what else?) a kill. In fact, it happened in the very first race back. Baltimore Bucko, says the chartwriter, “fell heavily at fence three then collided with Perfect Tapatino when attempting to right himself…and fell fatally to the ground.” (The replay, of course, is “unavailable.”) In this same race, A Silent Player “was eased home [and] reported to have bled.” As for Perfect Tapatino, after “falling heavily” himself, he was “apprehended and walked off under his own power.” My guess: the van – carting away a dead horse – was already occupied. Vile.